Romania does not endorse a separate budget for Eurozone and rejects the idea of taxing financial transactions, Minister of Public Finance Eugen Teodorovici said after a meeting with his peers from the European Socialists’ Party (PES) held in Berlin on Wednesday.

The Finance Minister said the European Union needs unity in a context in which it faces pressing problems, such as the shortage of employees.

“We do not support a separate budget for the Eurozone, especially now that the European Union is facing various challenges and needs unity, more than ever. That is why EU member states need to promote a bottom-up approach through which policies reflect real citizens’ agenda, such as the workforce shortages in Central and Eastern European countries,” Teodorovici said.

The separate budget for the Eurozone countries is part of the EU’s profound reform plan proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined this idea in the summer, following a summit of the European heads of states. The two advocate for the establishment of the separate budget for the Eurozone by 2021, whose funding to be provided by national contributions of member states, by European resources and the introduction of a tax on financial transactions.

The tax idea came as a result of the crisis, in the context of several member states having to take fiscal consolidation measures to support, among other things, the financial rescue packages for some banks. Another reason would be to discourage risky financial transactions that would destabilize the financial sector.

Such a tax would have discouraged, though, the evolution of the local financial market, Teodorovici argues, given that the assets of the Romanian banking system are the lowest in the EU, the credit as share in GDP is also very low, and the local stock exchange is among the least liquid in the EU.

“At the meeting of PES finance ministers I have sustained the protection of the financial market in Romania, a market that is in the process of consolidation, by rejecting the idea of joining the enhanced cooperation procedure in the area of taxing the financial transactions. We shall ensure the procedure will not affect the financial sector of the member states that are not willing to apply the tax, neither will it have an impact on the capital market,” the Finance Minister said.

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Finance Ministers who are PES members meet monthly to coordinate their positions on topics of European interest and crystallize a unitary and coherent policy at the EU level, for protecting the citizens’ interests.

The meeting was held at the invitation of German finance minister, Olaf Scholz. The meeting was also attended by Mario Centeno, Eurogroup President and Finance Minister in Portugal, Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Finance Ministers from Malta, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia, Greece, as well as Maria Joao Rodrigues, Robert Gualtieri and Pervenche Beres, representatives of the European Parliament.